The garment
textile & text & mirror
61 cm x 61 cm
May 2007

Old shirt, exactly as it was found on a road near the Bandon river where Von Kleist had been recording melodic water sounds. It was a men’s shirt, dusty and stiff as a board. He has sprayed it with many layers of metallic paint, then mounted it in front of a mirror.

The poem was written specially for this project, in honour of the garment in its original state when it was still beige and a bit sad, not at all flashy. The text is almost like a spine supporting the shirt instead of the body that used to wear it. You can only read the words if you look into the mirror.

The garment

Maybe it was not just the shirt
off his back that
fell by the wayside
from tractor to ground
from caterpillar to post.

perhaps it was a hot day
and he tore it off to celebrate
the imminent growing of wings.
Or his taking off ...
an airy emperor.

It could have been
a layer of protection
against a gathering storm.
Or worse.Its demise a sign
of sheer indifference

©Moze Jacobs, 2007